Digital heart beating in a wooden body

Meet your Vai Kai

Early childhood is a tremendous time of development, when emotional well-being plays very crucial role. With these values at the forefront we’ve created a companion that helps kids grow kinder and stronger.

Proud to be found on:

Caretaking and Imagination

Vai Kai is a cute living creature. Hold it in hands to feel a real heart beating in the wooden body. Give it a kiss and it will kiss you too! It giggles, sneezes, responds to you motions, calls for a hide-and-seek play, learns new things through updates, and more.

Sleeping Routine

Vai Kai wakes you up in the morning, calling you every time with different mood. Let it surprise you! When the bedtime comes, Vai Kai yawns and purrs. Put your companion to bed to let it fall asleep together with you. Psst! On your b-day morning Vai Kai will hum the happy b-day song!

Emotional Connection

Tap lighly on the doll and it responds with a kiss. A kiss that can be received across the world*

* when doll is connected to our free iOS app

Our customers:

“I was really excited about a toy that merges traditional, handmade, long-lasting playthings with modern technology; I wanted to give my kids an experience that was like my childhood and would feel familiar and fun to them as well. “Dad from Portland

"I was overwhelmed by the idea that my sons can overcome borders in playful interaction"Dad of 2 from Germany

“It’s a high tech toy that my kid can play with, but get the feeling of no tech :) it's not loud and catchy, but lovely designed.”Mom from Sydney

Traditional craftsmanship with the standards of the 21st century

As soon as you hold an Vai Kai in your hands you will immediately recognize how much love we put into making them. We work together with local manufacturers throughout Europe that have known their craft for generations. It´s a combination of talented handcraft and super precise technology.

Of course we think of our planet when producing. Thats why we only use wood that comes from sustainably managed forests within the EU to also give future generations woods to play in, fresh air and innovative toys.

"Wood is a familiar and poetic substance, which does not sever the child from close contact with the tree, the table, the floor. Wood does not wound or break down; it does not shatter, it wears out, it can last a long time."Roland Barthes

Why wood? We believe that it's the best material to provide healthly, sensory experiences, thus creating childhood memories that last an lifetime.

Our Chief Designer Justyna is obsessed with detail

Every doll is carefully assembled and tetsted in our workshop in Kreuzberg, Berlin

"It is a radical different approach to connected products"

— Father of 2 from Belgium

Made in Europe

Handmade in Europe, this is what we stand for. Our woodmakers in Poland have been perfecting their craft for generations. Every doll we produce, is carefully turned, polished and painted using the highest quality ecological and child-friendly colors by the Swiss company Zuelch™.

Wellbeing& Tech

Together with child development researchers from Sheffield University we have studied the effects of Vai Kai Companions on the 5-8 year olds. We have discovered how the emotional interactions of the dolls were triggering unique caretaking play patterns.Caretaking play is essential for the emotional intelligence and imagination development from the early age.

Patience & Time

It takes more than 30 years for a beech tree to grow big enough to be used in turning. When selected and cut by the foresters, the tree has to mature and dry for another 4 years. Only then, it arrives to our workshops ready to be turned.

When our dolls reach your home it is a result of almost 40 years of creation that started once as a tiny seed.

We believe that if we take from the forest we have to give something back - for every tree we use to make our dolls, we plant 5 new trees. They will grow together like the kids playing with the Vai Kai dolls.

Fagus Sylvatica - European beech

Familiesof the Future

Since 2016, hundreds of families around the world are hosting the Companions at their homes. Architects, doctors, designers and IT technologists decided to give their kids the gift of emotional connectedness.

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